Over the past few years, the Celtics have seen a lot of guards come and go. Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon, Jrue Holiday and Anfernee Simons have all come in and eventually been shipped out.
In that timespan, both Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have remained in green. Pritchard, a 2020 draft pick, and White, acquired at the 2022 trade deadline, have been the guards Boston has chosen to lead them going forward.
However, to start this season, neither of them are playing very well.
Neither White nor
Pritchard have gotten off to the starts Boston was looking for. White has averaged 11.1 points and 4.9 assists, shooting 44% from the field and 32% from three while Pritchard has averaged 13.4 points and 3.4 assists, shooting 40% from the field and 31% from three.
Unfortunately, Boston doesn’t have a ton of depth at the point guard spot. Baylor Scheierman is much more of a 2-guard or a wing than a point guard and Mike Conley is 40-years-old.
Devin Carter is another option, but he has yet to play this season due to mononucleosis and could have a role when he returns. With that said, he is a two-way guard who hasn’t had a good start to his NBA career so we shouldn’t be putting too much stock in him.
Boston needs the improved play to come from White and Pritchard. Those are the guys they have invested in.
For Pritchard, he needs to be more aggressive. Joe Mazzulla should be starting him, but that is a different conversation. Regardless, the Celtics need Payton to be a big scorer for them, in whatever role he is in. So far this season, Pritchard is averaging 10.3 shots per game, below both his 2024-25 and 2025-26 averages. If you remove the two games against the Bulls, Pritchard is averaging 7.8 shots per game, along with just 7.2 points.
That cannot happen on this team. In an ideal world, Pritchard is the Celtics number 2 offensive option behind Jayson Tatum, to take pressure off of White and Paul George. He isn’t going to be that without being aggressive.
Derrick White has always been more of a defensive player than offensive player, and so far this season, the Celtics have been a worse defensive team with him out there. According to databallr, Boston is 4.8 points better in 131 minutes with White on the bench than they are in the 210 minutes White has been on the court. It’s a small sample size, but I’m not too concerned.
I am worried about is his three-point shot though. Since the start of last season, D-White’s three-point shot has fallen off of a cliff. In the three seasons prior to last year, he shot 39% from three in the regular season. Since the start of last season, White has shot 33% from beyond the arc. He needs to make more threes than he has over the past year plus.
White and Pritchard are too talented and too good to play this poorly all season. Water typically finds its level with this stuff and I expect it to do the same here. If they don’t start playing better, however, it will be very hard for the Celtics to accomplish anything real in April and May.
